Jun 16 Game Recap/Notes: Game #58. Pistons 111 - Sixers 91. 29-29.

I'm probably way too happy about this. Because it is the Sixers, they suck, and they were on the second night of back to back. HOWEVA, this is what you are supposed to do to a crappy team on the back end of a back to back. And it was just so nice to slaughter someone.

Reggie Jackson: His box score really tells a good story of how he played tonight. 17 points on 14 equivalents, 5 assists to 5 turnovers. He was pretty much in cruise control tonight, and it was totally fine. He let other guys do their thing, picked his spots, and just generally did totally fine. His defense of Ish Smith was also particularly effective which was really nice to see, because his defense is not always all that good. All in all it really was just cruise control for Reggie, just 26 minutes, and did what was needed from him.

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KCP: Box score also is pretty telling here. 11 points on 8 equivalents, and thats really it. He obviously smothered whoever he went against because the Sixers have no good off guards. But his defense was awesome none the less. Played 30 minutes which is practically an off night for him which is nice. Really just a solid performance. Let other guys do their things, picked his spots and picked them well.

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Tobias Harris: Well, the Sixers decided to stick with Jahlil Okafor at the PF spot, and decided to have him try and guard Tobias Harris. And that went about how you would expect. Tobias did not score all of his points against Okafor, but he had a pretty easy night of killing various mismatches. He rode it to a super efficient 22 points on 14 equivalents. This is really the thing that is the potential of playing Harris and Morris together. Lots of teams have one upper 6 footer defender type guy on their team. Not many teams have 2 of them. And so that means they have to ask either some small dude (Nik Stauskas got this job for a possession tonight lol) or some big dude to try and guard one of these 2 guys. Which means you are giving a very good iso player a mismatch. Overall, I just freaking love this guy. (I've said this before) I wanted the Pistons to go after him this offseason, and I am so happy to have him now. He has been (in the small time) everything the Pistons could have wanted. He is a really good scorer, he is freaking defending better than I have ever seen him, (I'm not kidding, this is already better than I had any hope for) he can go get rebounds when he needs to, and while he still occasionally takes bad shots, he has been a very willing passer and even made some really nice passes. Like seriously, all of the things that people have said is wrong with him, have been non issues so fa. It might be wrong, but following the trade I just kept thinking about Marcus Morris, and how much a lot of it sounded like him, and how Morris has had no issues all season. In fact the one issue Morris has had is his shooting, which is the one thing people said made him kind of worth while. Speaking of Morris...

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MARCUS-MOTHER FUCKING-MORRIS: Probably overreacting a bit here, but I have talked a lot about how I like his potential as a playmaker and passer. And I have wanted to see him get to expand his playmaking more. Well it came to a freaking head tonight. 13 points on 16 equivalents, with 8 assists to just 1 turnover. Check this out, Morris' last 10 games assists: 3, 4, 4, 4, 6, 6, 3, 3, 4, 8. I think that Marcus Morris could average between 4 and 5 assists per game. I like that. His defense was not really needed tonight but his facilitating was so huge. Especially with the bench units, where he essentially played point guard for the bench mob.One thing with his passing that should be noted is that with Tobias Harris in town, he basically has to improve as a passer because Harris will eat up a fair amount of the isolations that Morris has used this season. HOWEVA, if Morris is actually as capable a passer/facilitator as I think he might be, then he will still be able to have a large role in the offense.

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ANDRE-MUTHA FUKIN-DRUMMOND: It was a very nice game, but you know why he gets the honors tonight. 4/8 from the line. Any time he is at or above 50% I'm about to get real hype. Beyond that though, he was the basis of the Pistons jumping out to a huge lead early in the game. He was simply too much on both ends of the floor. 12 points on 11 equivalents, and 18 boards does not really do it justice. He was everywhere defensively, bothering shots all over the place, and just generally disrupting things. Throw in that he totally stonewalled Okafor while guarding him and you've got a really good night. The Pistons will need him to be locked in like this a lot if they want to make the playoffs.

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REGGIE-FUCKIN-BULLOCK: I had too. I've been asking for him to get a real shot all season, and he finally got it tonight, and came through. Scoring 16 points on just 9 shots. While he had a couple screw ups (stepped out of bounds, fouled a 3 point shooter) but overall he was actually pretty good. Obviously this does not suddenly validate me in my thoughts that he would be a decent rotation player. It's just one game. But man that has to have felt good for him, and it felt good to see. Hopefully he can keep up some semblance of competence.

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Darrun Hilliard: Probably his worst game where he has actually been in the rotation. 6 points on 11 equivalents, and his defense was just as poor as it usually is. I still don't know if he will end up being any good, but he is growing on me. He is aggressive and not afraid to try and score in ways other than spot up looks, while it has at times made him just a bad chucker, but he has shown some ability to score and create inside a little bit. But this was a bad game for him. The trick while the injuries are so abundant will be to keep Hilliard and Bullock from having bad games on the same night.

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Steve Blake: Not going to talk about it.

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Aron Baynes: Just did his thing. 9 points on 9 equivalents, protected the hoop, got roasted by Jahlil Okafor. Threw some nice passes, finished some nice plays. Just another day at the office for Baynes.

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Justin Harper: Welcome to the team. He missed a 3 and hit a foul shot.